


the confrontation

by briwookie



Category: Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Genre: Gen, Jack-Centric, Jalph goodness holy sheet, M/M, this is old but but enjoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 01:04:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10547390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/briwookie/pseuds/briwookie
Summary: Ralph knew there was no going back. Jack Merridew was coming after him, the burning island on his back and a knife in hand.It must never be too late to spit death in the face.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot is one that I have taken from my compilation on FFN, "The Most Random One-Shots You Will Ever Read." After reading (with much cringing) on the side, I decided to edit this and upload it by itself. Basically give me Jack and Ralph in any tense situation and I will be a happy gal.

He was trying to run as fast as his beaten legs could carry him, but with the way things were going, the boy should have known better than to think he could escape.

There was pain, coursing right up through his legs. The scars decorated the boy's nude chest, tugged and ripped more as he ran past sharpened creepers on the trees. With the smell of smoking leaves coming from all around him, he tried not to cough or even weasel out a grunt of discomfort.

Keep steady, Ralph.

Chanting noises were heard, all the way from the other side of the island. The absolute worst thing he could do was stop, after all he wouldn't want his own head on the stick. _The stick sharpened on both ends_ , the boy remembered.

Even the burning sensation of that didn't make the boy as conflicted as what was behind him. Hunters they were, and hunting is most certainly what they were accustomed for.

A patch in the clearing, he saw out of the corner of his eyes, and sudden relief flooded through him. It seemed to be around a thicket, wide and sharp, the perfect hiding spot from the savages. Ralph almost assumed it a mere trap. Temptation giving in, Ralph simply sighed as he crouched onto the ground and peeked through the thicket.

The boy wished he was near a source of water so he could soak it up. It might have been the last chance he could have to drink anything ever again, for whenever the other boys would find him, they would most certainly pay him no mercy. Even the bitter schism that had once seemed civilized was more noticeable now than ever before, and after the twins' and their betrayal? It seemed practically hopeless for the boy to get out of this alive.

 _Crack_. The quiet and heart-throbbing noise that came from what seemed like the breaking of a stick frightened him, and he felt his heart beat more painfully in his chest. He crouched lower. He was now almost completely like an animal in a hunt, vulnerable to the other boys that had turned their backs on him, and he was cornered. Even a littlun' could appear from nowhere with an innocent demeanor on his face and call out the hunting noise, assembling the other boys to this same spot, with their sticks and knives, and _dammit_ , that paint.

Ralph told himself to stay calm, but his mind was going at a million miles per hour, and he could feel his fingers twitch as he awaited more noises to come after that one cracking. Whatever it was, it was either an animal or one of the hunters. _What's the difference_ , Ralph asked himself as he could hear other sounds coming out of the thicket, and he pressed his reddened face towards the openings to see clearer.

 _Only a pig_ , he came to realize, looking at the sight of the pink as it was eating berries off of the branches near evergreen trees. Ralph had to sigh in relief, for he could have sworn it was something, or someone, else.

"I should calm down...they wouldn't be able to get through the thicket anyway."

The minutes pressed on to hours, and before too long, it had become late afternoon. The fire was still rising, surprisingly, and Ralph had sleep start to come over him. He would much rather be prepared to run away than be asleep, so he forced himself to stay away with the rumbling stomach he had. Fear did not, could not escape him.

A few minutes more of nothing but silence and the same cracking sound came out again. The pig was no longer where it was before, though, so Ralph reached out and grasped the middle of his bloodied spear. After all, it had once belonged to the demonic pig head himself, so Ralph was sure that some kind of dignity would be spared in this lame excuse for defense. He could actually hear voices now, of the savages themselves, and instant distress flooded through him. He crouched as low as he could, but he noticed through the holes of the thicket that there were familiar sights.

There was Jack, _damn_ him, and there was also Roger, along with the twins. Jack pointed towards where Ralph was hiding, while looking at the twins, and his voice came out in a deep, horrid tone, as though he was extremely determined to pull something apart from one bone to another.

"And you're sure that he's there? If he's not-"

"He is, chief! We swear, don't we, Eric?"

The other twin nodded exceedingly, trying to win the approval of their new leader, and Roger looked towards the thicket with a blood-thirsty look on his face. Ralph could feel the pressure being put onto him at this one moment, and he tried to figure out a quick way to escape without being seen, but the thoughts were practically useless. There wasn't a way out without somebody noticing.

Jack turned his face towards the thicket, his red and green face paint shining slightly in the golden summer heat, and the perspiration of sweat making its way down his chest. Toned from all of the physical activity, he looked more intimidating now than ever before, even in the mysterious black choir robe he wore before, and as the boy looked toward the thicket, he quickly spun around and faced the twins with a glare.

"Dirty little liars, you two are! Keep looking northward. Roger, you join them. I will keep looking around the southern part of the island. Make sure to do the call whenever you see him!"

Ralph watched, slightly relieved, as the twins passed looks of confusion and left the scene. Roger was also baffled, but considering that he always followed his leader’s commands, he turned around and ran off into where he was assigned.

This just left the chief himself. Ralph’s heart thudded in his chest. He knew very well that if Jack was to see him through the thicket's borders that there was no hope, with the newly made hatred that the ginger had felt for him. Anything could point him out at this time.

The blonde boy watched as Jack kept moving around the clearing, an angered expression playing with the boy's freckled face, and Ralph had to admit it was rather amusing; watching as the chief himself couldn't hunt anything other than a pig.

_Don't underestimate him, Ralph. Your life could depend on it._

Ralph sighed as these thoughts came to him, while the ginger turned back quickly before looking left and right once again, as though to make nobody else was around him, and then he did the one thing that the other boy didn't want.

He was walking towards the thicket.

Ralph shook his head.

_Dammit, no! No, don't come here, don't come any closer, don't-_

It was far too late. Jack had made sure not to poke his fingers with any of the thicket's thorns as he pulled pieces of it separately, looking into the middle and finding the missing piece of puzzle. There, sitting down on the dirty ground, all scratched up and looking up with wide and fearful eyes, was his own prey.

A smirk crawled deviously onto the boy's face, telling Ralph who was going to win this battle, and the two boys stared at each other through the line that proved victory and helplessness.

"Jack," Ralph almost squeaked, his body. He didn't care about his pride, because at that single moment, the only thing that mattered was what Jack was going to do with him.

_You know very well what's going to happen. Might as well greet Simon and Piggy now, they're probably waiting for you on the other side._

Ralph wanted to squeeze his eyes as the other boy neared him, his icy blue eyes piercing through him like a million sharpened knives, and the blonde could only find his body moving itself into the thicket interior, knowing that he wasn't going to give in just yet. He raised his own spear in defense, even though it was pretty much useless, compared to the agility and strength of the boy in front of him.

Once Jack had neared him closely, his smirk only getting wider and wider, Ralph had to close his eyes. There was already the flashes of memories passing through his mind, including his home back in England, with his family and that annoying little sister he had. Then, there was the bookshelf he had thought about earlier, with the books about magicians and girls that he didn't want to read, and then was the animals. Everything the boy had ever known about was going to be gone at this one moment of time, and all it took was for one stabbing motion of the knife to prove it.

So Ralph simply waited. However, the longer he waited, the more he came to realize that, in fact, he wasn't getting stabbed at all. He opened his eyes and glanced upwards, finding the sadistic and carnivorous look that Jack once possessed was now filled with something else, something on the border of uncertainty. Ralph's impatience was wearing thin. If the boy was going to be like a hunter and end him, he would prefer to have his suffering done now than later.

Something else happened that made the prey more confused than ever at this point, and that was whenever Jack actually started to laugh. It was a low chuckling at first, but gradually, it led on to the boy laughing somewhat hysterically at the vulnerability he was faced with. Never before had Jack seen the other boy in this position, all dirtied up and willing to give in. Ralph's impatience turned from simple annoyance to straight up fury, and the blonde boy barked up in response.

"Have you turned completely batty? What is wrong with you, aren't you going to get it over with?"

The ginger boy had to stop before looking down towards the other boy. He seemed to recollect himself as the seriousness of the hunt flushed back into him, but he still smiled a little bit before speaking.

"Get it over with? Oh. I suppose you mean the hunt, don't you?" Jack simply laughed a little bit more before checking around him, seeing if the coast was clear and if nobody was in their line of sight. He turned back around again.

"I just enjoy seeing this,'s all."

 _Seeing what?_   Ralph wondered as the ginger leaned down and lightly pulled the knife away from his pocket. Gleaming in the light, it had the leftover remains of pig blood smothered all over it, and the boy pressed it rather harshly onto Ralph's scratched up leg. It was the same leg that had suffered the injury of the spear from earlier, right after the boulder incident and before Ralph officially became an outsider. Ralph had to grit his teeth together before screaming out in pain.

"Must be nice to be the one in pain this time, hm?" Jack whispered lightly, marveling at the amazing sight before him.

“ _You_ -" Ralph hissed, attempting to reach of his spear but noticing that it was no longer where it was before. His eyes widened as it was now behind Jack, and the redhead boy chuckled.

"You really do need to pay more attention."

Ralph was confused. Jack was doing this all on purpose, just to make him riled up, but the thing was that he was supposed to be dead by now. If all of Jack's intimidating remarks were true from before, than Jack wouldn't have hesitated to pounce on the prey while he could and slice him to pieces. However, it seemed more teasing rather than actual killing.

"Why the hell are you-?"

"Because," Jack murmured, flashing his eyes back up towards Ralph and laughing, sickly and without much regret, "...I want to see you tortured, not just killed. Oh no, I want to see the same exact pain come across your face as it had for me, all the time on this island. I want to see it, and now that you're witnessing how I felt...you must feel pretty bad about it, don't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Ralph said, feeling the knife get deeper in his calve at just the statement. Apparently, he had said something wrong from before, and Jack glared more harshly than before. No more jokes.

"You know _damn_ well!" Jack growled, dragging the knife upwards and making a fine red line going up Ralph's thigh.

It was at this point that Ralph didn't care if he was hiding his pride or not, because he screamed and squirmed underneath the grip of the blade. All kinds of pain came across him, and Jack smiled at the sheer sight.

"Jack...Jack, stop it. I don't know," Ralph began, panting from the pain.

"You could have joined my tribe," Jack muttered, moving away from the leg and going straight up towards the arms, not resisting the urge to slice wherever he pleased. Even with the tortured sounds of the boy in front of him, Jack apathetically continued to tease him with the hunting knife. "You still could, if you wanted to. Things don't have to go this way, you don't have to die."

There was a smug look on the boy's face, but more than that, Ralph could notice a sort of longing showing up within those eyes of his.

"I would rather die than join your tribe," Ralph hissed, forgetting the pain from the cuts for a minute just to lash his anger out. "You killed Simon, and then you killed Piggy-."

"Don't pretend you didn't kill Simon, either, you dirty liar!" Jack hissed, raising the knife and pointing it sternly. "Besides, I wasn't technically the one who killed Piggy in the first place, that was Roger, after all."

"But you still saw it and did nothing as punishment!" Ralph raged.

If things continued like this, he would be in more trouble than he had anticipated before, but at this rate, he knew he was going to die soon, anyway. Too much blood was coming out for him not to.

Jack looked like he might say something in response, but he kept his mouth shut. He analyzed the bleeding boy now, and he smiled at knowing that this was what happened to the previous chief. He was all torn up now, like a ragged doll, and now there was nothing else for him.

Hell, he could call in all of his hunters right then and there and finally just get rid of him, but something within him told him that this was his kill, his prize. Nobody was ever going to take that away.

Ralph watched from his position as a clear realization had hit him. It certainly took awhile for it to come up, but the blonde boy finally realized that there was a reason that Jack wasn't really killing him. Whether it really was to torture him, or something else, he wasn't quite sure...but he knew that it was definitely something. Ralph had to confront about this matter, at least, before he died anyway.

"...you don't want to kill me...do you Jack?"

The redhead looked surprised at the statement before raising his knife up again, furious.

"You're scared," Ralph muttered, feeling the swelling of pride come up again as he could feel the faint nearing him as well. He was going to die, he was sure of it, but seeing the pathetic stutter on Jack's face was enough to make the boy feel somewhat proud.

"But more than that, you're just a coward. You would never kill somebody on your own...same thing with Simon. Sure, we killed him together, but you needed somebody else to take the blame...you didn't want it for yourself."

"Watch it," Jack hissed, ready to end his life then and there, but Ralph knew he wouldn't go through with it.

"You don't want to kill me because you knew that there would be nothing else to feel conflict over. You don't want to kill me because you're afraid that somebody else in your filthy excuse for a tribe will take all the power, maybe Roger perhaps?"

"I said, _watch_ it! You're asking for a brutal awakening!"

"But even more than that, you don't want to kill me because maybe..maybe," Ralph whispered, his eyes leading onto the blood covered ground and his body shaking.

The faint was starting to corrupt him, he knew, and he would have to close his eyes soon and give his last blesssing to the rotten world around him. He stared at Jack, pale in the face and ready to give out.

"Because maybe, in one way or another," Ralph muttered, "you and I are the same?"

Jack watched, wide-eyed, as the other boy fell to the ground. There was absolutely nothing else to say as he saw this motionless body before him. Jack watched before his own knife fell to the ground as well.

The other hunters came by at the sight a few minutes later, noticing the redheaded boy still looking down towards the dead boy with a look of shock and dismay, not daring to pick his eyes up for even a second. Even Roger could tell that Jack was different, and the rest of the boys watched as the island continued to burn more to the ground.

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews and feedback are greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading!


End file.
